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How to Make Cherry Seeds Grow Indoors

By D.C. Winston; Updated September 21, 2017

Cherry trees can easily be started from fresh pits indoors provided they have a sufficient cold set period. The chill period to break dormancy is called stratification and can be accomplished in a household refrigerator. Seeds can then be sown and germinated indoors to produce first a seedling and then a sapling that can be planted outdoors at some future point. Started from seed, a cherry tree should reach mature fruiting age in seven to 10 years.

Harvest pits from fresh cherries at the peak of ripeness. Collect several times the seeds as the end amount of cherry trees to allow for germination failure. Clean the fruit flesh off the pit and rinse them in clean water.

Fill a resealable plastic bag with a few inches of moist sphagnum peat moss and nestle the pits in the moss and seal the bag closed.

Store the sealed bag in your refrigerator between 33 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit and keep there for a period of 90 days.

Prepare a small nursery pot filled with fresh, sterile and lightweight potting mix. Nestle the cold-treated cherry pits 1/2 inch down in the soil and cover over with displaced soil. Water the soil until drenched, being careful not to uncover the buried cherry pits.

Set the pot in a brightly lit window, in a greenhouse or under a skylight so that it receives at least six to eight hours of bright sunlight daily. Water frequently enough to keep the soil consistently and evenly moist but not sopping wet. Pale shoots should appear within six weeks time.